Leading Book Publishing Executive Offers Customized Seminars for aspiring writers, and artists on getting published, finding a literary agent, internet marketing, and other areas of book publishing.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

LITERARY AGENT

Black Hawk Enterprises represents a broad spectrum of authors and illustrators, with a focus on new nonfiction and fiction. Cross marketing and detailed marketing plans are provided by our agency to assist our clients in maximizing media coverage. Based on Jan's three years of experience working at Google, she develops in-depth analysis of various marketplaces for books and use of Google products for maximum results. Jan Kardys, President of Black Hawk Enterprises has 30 years of diversified publishing experience for nine major publishing corporations. Jan was Director of Contracts for Warner Books/Little, Brown & Company, Director of Contracts at Macmillan Publishing Company, Charles Scribner's Sons, and Contracts Director at Prentice Hall/Simon & Schuster. Ms. Kardys has worked at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Doubleday, Scholastic, Lippincott & Crowell, Publishers, St. Martin's Press,

Cone Nast Publications, and Google. Beginning a career in editorial, Jan also worked in art and production in school publishing. Jan held various executive positions in subsidiary rights, licensing, database design, royalty conversions, contracts, copyrights & permissions departments.

Black Hawk Enterprises, LLC

Literary Agent

Contact: 203-938-7405

cell: 917-280-5709

17 Church Hill Road

Redding, CT 06896

Scholastic, Inc. (December 2006 – December 2008)Contracts ManagerNegotiated trade and school contracts, work for hire, and other specialized licensed agreements with author and literary agents or attorneys for world’s largest children’s book publisher. Established new procedures to streamline contract process, reorganized contract functions,Created a clause library for contracts, audio clause library and process manual, and deal memo and editorial workshop in PowerPoint.

Google, Inc.Senior Contracts Associate (December 2003 – November 2006)Review all service agreements/insertion orders and related contracts for leading Search & Media Company for Google’s AdWords products, Google Video, Google Earth, Google Enterprise, and Content Licensing agreements, Compliance, review and power of attorney for these time-sensitive domestic and international agreements. Position involves complete knowledge of all policies and procedures, and implementation of approvals/rejections of contracts in Google’s Internal Advertising System. Provide confidential reports for sales team, and liaison with Ad Finance, Ad Operations, Legal, and other departments. Represented the Sales Department in selecting authors to appear at Google under the Authors@Google program. Started a Google Museum Club with monthly trips in order to build team spirit within Google.

Time Warner Trade PublishingDirector of Contracts (February 1996 – May 2000)Responsible for directing all aspects of publishing contract drafting, revising and negotiations for all divisions of major international book publisher. Supervised staff of managers, associates and assistants in drafting, negotiating, and revising comprehensive range of contracts for wide variety of publishing rights involving U.S., U.K., and other jurisdictions, including adults’ and children’s book agreements, contributor agreements (for illustrators, photographers, translators, and designers), co-edition agreements with museum and galleries, co-publishing arrangements, reprint and other subsidiary rights, electronic and audio agreements. Introduced/implemented a major imaging system for legal documents; designed layout screens for a publishing database; prepared training manuals for various departments; February 1998 promoted to Director of Contracts, Little, Brown & Company. Diverse and specialized duties the consistent exercise of discretion and independent judgment, conflict resolution and creative problem solving. September 1999 became Director of Contracts Information – company-wide database system.

Macmillan Publishing Company/Prentice Hall of Simon & Schuster, Inc.Director of Contracts, Copyrights & Permissions (1985-Febuary 1996)Macmillan: negotiated trade publishing contracts for six publishers; supervised a staff of fifteen; reorganized contract functions; collected debts, designed contracts database system. (Macmillan was acquired by Simon & Schuster – 1994-1995): Promoted to Director of Contracts, Prentice Hall. Handled conversion of Macmillan into Prentice Hall, and all new School/College contracts, subsidiary rights contracts, amendment letters; designed reversion of rights and cancellation databases; supervised a staff of eighteen in order to enter royalty data into the Royalty system. Implemented and created a new system for print-on-demand for all college titles in order to use existing manufacturing functions. Designed an Editorial Workshop for all Editorial divisions.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:¨ Learning Annex: HOW TO NEGOTIATE A BOOK DEAL Course designed specifically for authors, agents, and editors. This course explains the complex and puzzling clauses within a publishing contract and prepares you for a negotiation. Various departments within a publishing company are explored. November 1, 2005, January 24, 2006, February 21, 2006, and March 21, 2006.

¨Learning Annex: PUBLISHING PANEL: HOW TO BE SUCCESSFULLY PUBLISHED Topic: How to structure a great book deal and all the other contractual aspects you’ll need to know. October 29, 2005

LIBRARY PRESENTATIONS WITH HANDOUTS, PowerPoint Presentations¨Waterford Library, Feb 3, 2007 Getting Published¨Eastchester Library, February 26, 2007 You Wrote a Book, Now What?¨Hendrick Hudson Free Library, Monroe,NY September 8, 2007 How to Get Published¨Patterson Library, Paterson, NY September 15, 2007 You Wrote a Book, Now What?¨Somers Library, Somers, NY September 22, 2007 Getting Published

6 comments:

How brilliant! Of course, a publishing contracts expert would know all about the ins and outs of getting published just as well - if not even better than - a literary agent. I hope that Jan's courses won't make it too easy for all of us novice authors! Who will buy all of our lovely books? Look for my own blog this coming autumn for news of my first novel "Yankees - a tale of love, politics, death, betrayal, and transformation as a young English gentleman falls madly in love with a Yankee seamstress, learns to his love Liberty, and eventually earns the respect and reciprocal love of his strong, opinionated Yankee girl, becoming, in the end, a true Yankee himself. - CB Wayne 7/26/07

I have had the great fortune of attending Ms. Jan Kardys' lectures at the Armonk Library in the Fall of 2007. Her classes on publishing books and information on contracts with publishing company's were insightful and very informative.Ms. Kardys is a wonderful & caring mentor and the best "book publishing teacher". If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of her courses, I highly recommend it!Good Luck to all in their publishing endeavors.

First and foremost, I Love this woman Jan Kardys! Why? Because she is one of my best examples of Love personified. Did I already say that I Love this woman? Of course and I'll continue to say it! Months back, Jan chose me and I chose her to embark on a journey into the world of book publishing. Her "genius" plan is to take my self published book, "The Love Book: Simple Truths out to the publishing world so that my Love message can reach the masses. My book offers hope at a time when all of us need more Love. All of what Jan knows about the publishing business is driven by her huge heart evidenced by her constant giving of her self. You can see that I'm one very happy client! Lastly,I Love this woman! In Love, Fred Bader,Ph.D. author of The Love Book: Simple Truths, Love Counselor/Teacher, (morelove.com).

I met Jan as a student at a Learning Annex publishing workshop she conducted a few years ago and have had a great working relationship with her every since.

At the time I had a film book, a self-published labor of love, that I was trying to get published by a major house. Jan's guidance helped me to understand the complex and foreign world of publishing rights and deals.

Within months she helped me negotiate a great deal with Focal Press, the film/tv imprint of Elsevier, the number one publisher of Science and Technology books in the world.

I'm ecstatic to say that my book, The Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide is now one of (if not) the best-selling film books of 2008! It remains in the top 5 film books on Amazon.com and I've already signed a deal for my second book with the same prestigious publisher and they are still looking to do more book deals with me!

With Jan's guidance, I have a great relationship with my publisher and was even sent on a 3 country European book tour for the launch of my first published book (a very rare occurence for any author).

This book deal has changed my life and opened doors I never imagined I'd be welcomed into with such ease. For the first time in my professional life, people are coming to me instead of me chasing them and I even have to turn down some of the opportunities that come my way...and it feels great.

I give Jan a large part of the credit for that success. She gave me the knowledge, confidence, and support that I needed to land this deal and negotiated (and removed) clauses that I would have never thought of, let alone actually got were it not for her help.

Jan is not just a literary agent, she's someone that genuinely cares about the people she represents. I knew the moment I met her that she didn't just care about money or how commercial my book was...she actually cared about me and my book.

As I wrote in the thank you notes of my book, Jan is "one of the people that gives agents a good name". If you are blessed enough to be picked up by Jan's Black Hawk Enterprises, you'll soon see for yourself.